A year after Nepal quake, some united in grief; others climb again

    People write condolence messages during an event organized to commemorate the victims of Nepal earthquake For survivors and relatives of victims of a landslide that struck with the force of half an atom bomb it is a time to grieve. For witnesses to a fatal avalanche at the Mount Everest base camp, it is time to climb again. A year after the worst earthquake in Nepal's history struck at four minutes to midday on April 25 last year, the Himalayan nation is remembering the 9,000 victims of the 7.8 magnitude quake and a second tremor 17 days later.
 Among those returning to Nepal are adventurers like Australian photographer Athena Zelandonii, who is trekking again to attend a ceremony of remembrance on Monday in Langtang village, obliterated by a huge rockfall that took the lives of 285 locals and foreigners. They will be remembered at the memorial event where, starting at 11:56 a.m., the name of each victim will be read out. "There was no question of not coming back," Zelandonii, 26, told Reuters in the capital Kathmandu. Part of a group of people who searched for loved ones or themselves lived through the disaster, Zelandonii survived an avalanche on the mountain slopes above Langtang, but was stranded for days by the rockfall. READ MORE Nepal's female climbers blaze trails for their gender Still missing in the Langtang area is American Dawn Habash, a 57-year-old yoga instructor from Augusta, Maine, who was trekking in Nepal for the fourth time. Son Khaled and daughter Yasmine worked shifts to try and find out about their mother after the earthquake - all they could find out was that she was last seen walking downhill toward Langtang just before the earthquake. Both of them and Dawn's brother Randy are in Nepal for the anniversary, and hope that at least her body can be found. "Because we need that closure," said Khaled. "Sometimes I still get these lightning-bolt thoughts – what if? And that’s not healthy." Of 181 foreigners who died in the earthquake or are still missing, 63 were in Langtang. Villager Kartok Lama, 30, said locals had already marked the anniversary of the quake by the Tibetan calendar that they follow. They said prayers in a hut because Langtang's two gompas, or Buddhist temples, had been destroyed.